POP QUIZ: SIMPLE PLAN

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, November 14, 2004

For years we thought no good music ever came out of Canada -- and then we got Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne and Sum 41, which proved us right. But that didn't include Quebec, which is a good thing for Simple Plan, a multiplatinum pop punk band from Montreal, out on the road promoting its second album, "Still Not Getting Any." Packed with songs about teenage alienation and the hazards of Botox, it is naturally making lead singer Pierre Bouvier a messiah for impressionable teenage girls..

Q: You made this album with Bob Rock, the guy who did all those Metallica and Motley Crue albums. Did you hear any good stories?

A: Some great ones, most of which I can't expose.

Q: Come on. I won't tell.

A: Let's just say there are a lot of rumors we had heard and, being able to double-check them with Bob, we realized most the stuff people gossip about is just bull.

Q: Did you leave him with any good stories?

A: Um, probably.

Q: Like what?

A: We're not like those bands that basically need counselors to be there just to get along. I guess we're pretty boring in that sense. But I think he had a great time. He told us at the end that he hadn't had this kind of fun in 20 years. I think it was a really great friendship that we developed. So we probably mostly left him some boring stories of love and friendship.

A: I guess our songs just affect people. People always tell me how the music helped them. That never gets old.

Q: Has one of your own songs ever made you cry?

A: Not made me cry.

Q: Not even made you kind of misty?

A: When we wrote the album and we recorded the songs and when they all came together and I went in my car and put the CD in, to be able to know that we were able to start from scratch and do this, it does mean a lot to me. It does affect me. I mean, I'm not out in my car crying, but it's a big deal for a bunch of young guys from Montreal to be able to do this. It's pretty emotional.

Q: Did you cry at the end of "Titanic"?

A: You know, I'm actually waiting for a movie that's going to make me shed a tear.